Can You BEAR It?
by LaughAttack101
Summary: When a suspicious grizzly is brought to the zoo, Skipper immediatly has a rivalry with him. This bear steals his friends, his own team, and very possibly his sanity. He will have to find a way out of this sticky situation...before his life is ruined. R&R!
1. Prologue

I hope you enjoy this new story that I just now created. It's mostly about Skipper, (sorry the summary was so crummy) but there is still some of all of the penguins, Marlene, the lemurs and a bunch of the other characters in here. (plus new ones) There MIGHT be a tiny bit of Skilene stuff later on...

_______________________________________________________

(text that looks like _**this**_ is words from the song. Text that just looks like _this_ is thoughts.)

_______________________________________________________

Prologue:

(Gnarls Barkley "Crazy" song comes on) _**I remember when, I remember I remember when I lost my mind...**_

Now it seemed almost laughable to Skipper, looking back. Not a funny sort of laugh, a bitter, cold one with no traces of humor left.

_Stupid bear. Stupid bear. Stupid bear._

_**There was something so pleasant about that place.**_

There was nothing pleasant about the place Skipper was now in, not just meaning the hard wet ground that he now lay on. Alone. Everyone hated Skipper now, and Skipper hated that they hated him. He hated being an outcast, and he hated that STUPID bear. If he had ever thought that no one could drive him insane, he was wrong.

_Maybe I did lose my mind... That bear! That stupid, stupid bear..._

**_Even your emotions had an echo in so much space._**

This was definately true.

**_And when you're out there, without care, yeah I was out of touch..._**

Yep. Skipper was out of touch. No one would talk to him, even if he was with them, probably ever. Not his friends, not even his own team...

**_But it wasn't because I didn't know enough.  
_****_I just knew too much._**

Skipper was the only one who knew the truth. There was no way to tell anyone else. Don't think he hadn't tried to let it out because he had, every chance he got. Atleast the parts that were safe to tell... But everyone thought he was crazy. Crazy, and out of control. Especially after the most recent incident that had very possibly ruined his life far beyond repair.

**_Does that make me crazy? Does that make me crazy? Does that make me crazy?_**

_I don't know, _thought Skipper, _does it?_

_**Probably.**_

But it didn't matter because there was no changing things now.


	2. Meeting the Monster Himself

Chapter 2: Meeting the Monster Himself

It was a scorchingly-hot summer's day in the Central Park Zoo, where 4 penguins labored on in the heat. Private, Rico and Kowalski were doing push-ups as Skipper watched and pushed them on.

"61, 62, 63-" Skipper yelled.

Private collapsed onto the hard ground and Rico and Kowalski stopped, as well. "Sk-Skipper," pleaded Kowalski, "we've been laboring at hard physical exercises for hours on end."

"Yeah, Skippa, can't we take a break?" asked Private. Skipper slapped himself in the face.

"That's too bad, soldier. You need to stay in good physical condition!"

"Hot." grunted Rico. He rolled over onto his back and regurgitated a huge pitcher of water, which he gulped down in five seconds. When he had licked the last drops clean from the container, he threw it aside and it hit Skipper right in the face accidentally.

Skipper didn't move a muscle but glared at Rico, making him feel terrified. He thought that Skipper might hurt him or something, because he certainly had been harsh on them before.

Well, he was half right, because Skipper did tell Kowalski to slap him in the face to get him to come to his senses.

"Men! Pull yourselves together! I know it's hot, but that doesn't excuse you from daily training!"

They all groaned loudly as they returned to a push-up position.

_Babies, _thought Skipper as he counted on. "64, 65, 66, 67, 68...69......." He got slower and slower at the sound of a truck approaching from behind, and eventually he stopped counting altogether. He turned around to see the cause of all the commotion, and upon seeing that their leader had turned away, the three exhausted penguins fell on their backs and rested, sighing loudly.

Skipper narrowed his eyes as a crate was being delivered to another exhibit very far off. Well, it must have been, because after driving past several other exhibits it turned a corner and disappeared from sight. Judging by the size of the crate, this was no small animal. Something in his gut told him to go check it out.

"Team," he said, not even turning around to look at them, "I'm off on an important mission. I'll be back soon, but while I'm gone I still expect you to continue with training! Remember, don't stop until you get the 85 push-ups, then carry on with the other exercises."

The team groaned and resumed with push-ups as the leader mysteriously disappeared.

________________________________________________________

Skipper snuck along in the direction that the truck went with the crate, trying to stay hidden. He slid on his belly through open areas, which were thankfully deserted due to the zoo being closed. He hid under benches and remained in the shadows, until eventually he spotted a crate in a nearby habitat.

Excitedly, Skipper slid up to it and tried to read the sign for a clue as to what the animal might be. Unfortunately for him, he was unfamiliar with this newly-opened exhibit, not to mention reading was not his forte. Or, rather, he couldn't read at all. (If only he had brought the chimps along!)

"Aw, fish." Skipper cursed to himself. "I guess there's only one way to find out what it is now."

Glancing around to double-check that no one was watching, he finally climbed up the fence and flipped through the air, all in one swift motion. He landed on his feet inside the unknown, quite possibly dangerous animal's mysterious realm.

Looking around, he realized that he was surrounded by strange-looking trees and rocks of bizarre formations. Curious, Skipper held out a flipper to touch a pine tree, but when he made contact with the edge of a sharp needle it made him jump back ten feet.

"What is this place!?" he wondered, searching for some sort of life anywhere. "Hello? Anybody home?"

When nothing was to be heard but his own voice echoing off the rocks, he finally decided to walk up to the crate from behind. Due to his minor paranoia, he approached it from behind so as not to be ambushed or taken by surprise.

"Um, is anyone in there?" He cupped his hands around his ears, waiting for a response, but none came. He took a step backward, and, looking around one last time, he lunged forward and kicked it across the exhibit.

It whooshed through the air with ease, crashing into a rock wall and shattering into a million pieces. Nothing was in it.

"What the- hello? Hello! Is anyone here?"

Not a soul answered.

Defeated and confused, Skipper turned around to leave when suddenly the wind blew a map of the zoo in his face.

"Hmm... well, I guess whoever it is that lives here got lucky already. Took me years to collect everything in the HQ. Wonder where this animal is now..."

Skipper shook his head, carrying the map back with him, and waddled back to his own habitat, where he hoped his team where doing as he told them to do...

_______________________________________________

Back at the exhibit, Kowalski, Rico and Private were swimming lazily on their backs in the water, laughing wildly. Among them was a new animal that Skipper had never seen before. Immediately he grew suspicious of him.

"Boys? You're supposed to be training! And who is this intruder!"

The three penguins looked up and stopped laughing instantly. None of them said a word as they stole glances at each other, terrified.

Eventually, Kowalski spoke up. "Um, Skipper, this is Randy, the new animal. He is a grizzly bear from a zoo in Ohio." he said, pointing to an enormous animal with dark-brown fur covering his entire body. He hesitated, turning his big furry head, but finally he spoke up.

"Pleasure to meet you, Skippy." Randy said a little TOO enthusiastically, flashing his teeth at him. Nobody else seemed to notice, so he went on. "I'm sorry to interrupt your training and barge in like this. I'll leave now."

Pretending to be remorseful and sad, the bear swam up to the front of their exhibit and was about to climb out. "The name's Skipper!" Skipper shouted after him.

Private glared at Skipper. "Skippa, he's new here and you just sent him away? He just came 5 minutes ago!"

Skipper glared right back at them. "That's no way to talk to your commanding officer! And I don't care if he's the king of France, you three are supposed to be training! Duty is duty."

Private, embarrassed, glanced at his feet. "Sorry, Skippa. You're right. Duty is duty."

Randy sniffled loudly as he jumped down on the other side of the fence. "I understand. How rude of me. I won't bother you guys anymore."

Kowalski and Rico looked miserably after him, and even Skipper's expression faltered. Eventually, he caved in.

"Oh, alright, you bunch of knuckleheads! He can stay and you can skip the rest of your training. But just for today! Don't expect this all the time."

"Yeah!" Kowalski shouted in his nerdy voice as he and Rico high-fived and Private jumped for joy. Randy happily jumped back in, and the three penguins resumed partying.

Skipper sighed. This could be something he would regret later on.


End file.
